The Moose Lake Star Gazers U-16 softball team won the Lake Superior Girls Fastpitch U-16 "B" Division Championship with a 9-3 win over Cloquet's Outdoor Advantage team on July 26.
Moose Lake got things going in the first inning when Kim Ergen tripled to score Katie Youngberg in the top of the inning to make it 1-0.
In the top of the second, Hillary Peterson crushed an inside-the-park homer to extend the Gazers lead to 2-0.
Cloquet cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second, but in the fifth inning, the Gazers struck for six runs to move ahead 8-1, with the big hit another round tripper by Peterson.
Amanda Larson added the final run of the game for Moose Lake with an inside-the-park homer in the top of the sixth inning.
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Moose Lake made the finals with a first-round win over Outdoor Advantage, which came into the tournament as the No. 1 seed overall. Moose Lake then topped Esko and waited for the losers bracket games to play out to see who they would play in the double elimination format finals.
"The girls thank the Star Gazette for sponsoring them," said coach Kate Collier. "We would also like to thank Penny Youngberg, Keith Haglund and Alan Larson for all the help and for lugging the gear."
Esko had defeated Northwestern in the first round to move ahead while both Outdoor Advantage and Northwestern fell immediately to the losers' bracket.
In the first round of the losers' bracket, Cloquet Outdoor Advantage ousted Northwestern 12-8, then in the second round it was Cloquet downing Esko 10-1 before facing Moose Lake and dropping the final game of the tournament.
